EDU BLOCK 221 Spring 2008

Teacher: Jared Libby
Office: Black Hall, Room 516A
Office Phone: 207.504.1406
Office Hours: Monday, Wednesday 4:30-5:30pm
E-mail: jared.libby@maine.edu

Summary of Unit

You are a American CIA operative. You have been invited to a secret meeting in the White House with the President of the United States and his/her top advisors. This group Is trying to determine the best way to take over different countries but first need background information on these countries.. You have just returned from a secret mission to another country where you needed to discover the differences and similarities of that country and the United States. You kept a video diary which shows your travels and describes what you discovered. You will be expected to present this video to teach the president and advisors about the country you visited. You will be scored on the information from the video, how creative the video was, how long the video is, what sources you discovered, and how attractive it it.

Maine Learning Results: Social Studies . B. Civics and Government.
B2 Rights, Duties, Responsibility and Citizen Participation in Government. Grades 9-Diploma.
"Contemporary United States, 1961-present"
Students understand the legal rights, the civic duties and responsibilities, and roles of citizens living under other forms of government in the world."
b. Evaluate the relationship between the government and the individual as evident in the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and landmarked court decision

What understandings are desired?


Students will understand that: (U)
•Government Bodies around the world are different.
•The government they are apart of has a distinct form and function.
•Citizens in America have a role with government.

What essential questions will be considered?

Essential Questions: (Q)
•Why do different cultures form different forms of government?
•How does the government that you are apart of function?
•What is the relationship between the government and the people?

What key knowledge and skills will students acquire as a result of this unit?





Students will know: (K)
Students will be able to do: (S)
•Important Events: 1776, Founding fathers, Roe v Wade,
Brown v Board or Education.
•Vocabulary: Bill of Rights, Constitution, Authoritarian Regime,
Monarchy, Constitutional Monarchy.
•Timelines: Important Court Cases
•Compare and Contrast a foreign government's structure to their own
government's structure.
• Explain the difference between the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.
• Participate in some way with their government (write
a legislative document, work with a lobby or non profit,
contact a representative, etc.).
• b. Evaluate the relationship between the government
and the individual as evident in the US constitution, Bill of Rights,
and landmark Court Cases.
• Illustrate how our rights have remained the same changed
or adapted through history.
• Explain a court case in history, the incidents leading
up to the case, and how the case changed the rights
of citizens in America.

Expectations

Participation is a critical component of learning and you are expected to arrive to class on time and attend all classes unless there is an emergency or illness.

Assignments are required to be turned in on time, unless prior arrangements have been made in advance. You may have the opportunity to redo some assignments, if they are turned in on time and will be due one week after being returned to you. You must submit the original work, rubric, the revised work and a brief statement of the improvements you made to the assignment. All assigned work must be typed on a word processor using Times font, 12 points, unjustified and free of typographical, spelling and grammatical errors. Please keep a copy of all work submitted, until the final grade of the course has been determined.

Students must abide by the academic rules of the district.

Benchmarks

Attendance and Participation 30%

You must be present and actively engaged in all aspects of the course. You need to be prepared and a contributing member in all the learning components of the course. Article reflections and course readings will be documented in a Blog. Teaching is an art and requires dedicated students who will collaborate with one another and are not afraid of taking risk in the process of developing their teaching methods.

Tests and projects 40%


Homework 30%

Grading Scale

A (93 -100), A- (90 - 92), B+ (87 - 89), B (83 - 86), B- (80 - 82), C+(77 - 79), C (73-76), C- (70 - 72), D+(67 - 69), D (63 - 66), D- (60 - 62), F (0 - 59). A grade of a C- is required for each individual course in the Block. Your grade for the Block will be the average of the four grades you earn from each individual course of the Block.